The chief executive of Edinburgh-based craft brewer Innis & Gunn spent his school and student holidays helping out in the family brewing business and by the time he graduated he’d done every job from making beer to driving the delivery lorries.

“When I graduated the brewery had a major fire and Dad phoned me up to come in and help because he needed to rebuild the place,” Sharp recalls.

“By then I was only 20-something but had years of experience in the brewery so was hauled in to help.

“I thought it was only going to be for six to 12 months, but I stayed because brewing had got into my blood. I loved the creativity of being part of the brewing process.”

His father, Russell Sharp, started in the whisky industry as chief chemist at Seagrams, but left to return to the brewery where he worked as a student – Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery. He led a management buyout of the business in 1987 and was the managing director until he retired in 2004.

“Dad encouraged me to learn about the management side of brewing, so I went off to do a pupillage at Timothy Taylor’s in Keighley, in Yorkshire. I hit the books to learn the theory and started to make my own recipes.

“There were a few disasters but we also some really good ones. We started to pick up all sorts of awards up to Champion Beer of Britain for Deuchars IPA, which Dad had created and I had refined.”

Another fire in 1998 meant Sharp and his father had to rebuild the Caledonian a second time.

Then in 2002 whisky distiller William Grant commissioned the brewer to produce a special beer for an ale-finished whisky.

“So we produced this beer and sent it off to them for filling into special barrels they use for distilling.

“After 30 days the beer was discarded and the mature whisky filled into the barrels to absorb the flavour of the beer.

“This process we had proposed worked, so they launched an Ale Cask Reserve whisky and started buying thousands of barrels”

So far, so good. But what about the beer that was being discarded?

“The guys who were supposed to be pouring away these barrels of beer, weren’t. They discovered that the beer had been completely transformed by its time in oak and had an absolutely amazing, delicious flavour.

“They were filling empty lemonade bottles and watering cans with this beer to drink at home.

“But distillery management found out and got in touch with us. When we gave samples of the beer to our taste panel (fully trained tasters who meet every Friday to taste product samples), they gave every one nine out of nine. That had never happened.”

Sharp knew they were onto something and instead of leaving to start a Masters in Business Administration course, accepted an invitation from William Grant’s executive board to present what he would do with this new accidental discovery.

A few weeks later, Sharp was minority shareholder in a new subsidiary set up by the distiller to market the product.

The next 12 months were spent developing the name, packaging and logo for the new brand.

“We had lots of names for the company and researched everything across the UK,” Sharp says.

“Innis and Gunn are just me and my brother’s middle names. It was really pulled out of the bag in injury time just before we were due to launch.

“When we put Innis & Gunn into research, people across the UK were convinced not only that they’d heard of it, but that it had an implied quality to it.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Since launching in 2003, Innis & Gunn have attracted multiple awards and a loyal following of fans in the on and off trade across the UK, Ireland, Canada, the US and Scandinavia.

Sharp bought out the business from William Grant in 2008 and last year, for the first time, Innis & Gunn sold more than one million cases of product.

They employ almost 40 staff, turn over more than £7.5m and export 80 per cent of their output.

“Our flagship beer, Innis & Gunn Original, is matured either in bourbon barrels or on oak that’s been seasoned in bourbon,” Sharp explains. “The blend of these things produces a wonderfully smooth beer with flavours of vanilla, toffee and hints of citrus.

“The beauty of the oak process is that it seems to mellow the flavour of the beer and hide the roughness of the alcohol, so you get a very malty and delicate beer.”

The company also have Innis & Gunn Rum Finish, which, as the name suggests, has been finished over oak infused with rum to leave a rich, spicy taste.

There is even an un-oaked lager that is brewed in the Helles style (hoppy, pale and Germanic).

“It’s quite aromatic and has a little bit more body than most lagers,” Sharp says.

“This has been brewed in answer to the many customers in the on trade in Scotland asking us for a lager.”

Major projects on the go include the repatriation of the company’s bottling operation back to Scotland from Bury St Edmunds, which will put the whole of the company’s production on one site for the first time and Sharp insists such a move will be for the benefit of the company.

“This will make it much easier to manage production and control quality and gives us the capacity to double our business over the next three years,” he says.

“Doing this has huge environmental benefits, because what we’re looking at doing is lightweighting our glass bottles.

“Over three years, this will cut out 2200 tons of CO2, remove 30,000 miles of road journeys and mean 10 per cent fewer shipping containers leaving the UK – so this is a huge project that we’re working on with real measurable benefits.”

Innis & Gunn is also putting the finishing touches to a dedicated events space at their Randolph Crescent headquarters.

This will have the capacity to host bespoke events for up to 50 people in a beer-themed setting.

So what does Sharp admit to enjoying the most about his work?

“Making outstanding beer is what gets everyone passionate and excited in this company,” he says.

“We’re doing what we do because we believe we’re making some really great beer.

“It’s really heartening and inspiring to see someone try one of our products and watch their face break into a huge smile because they’ve never tasted anything like it before.”

The other thing that really excites Sharp is seeing the company’s plans come to fruition after many years of hard work and dedication.

“I’m very proud of the people in this business,” he says.

“We have a real family feel here and it’s very enjoyable to work with the colleagues we have here and share these great plans.

“We wholeheartedly believe that one day Innis & Gunn will be a true global brand, and that’s what we’re all working towards, one step at a time.”